Influence of Parental Mindful Eating Practices on Child Emotional Eating: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Abstract

Abstract Objectives Parents and caregivers shape the social and environmental factors that influence a child's intake and eating behaviors. Parental feeding practices may lead to recurring emotional eating in the child. Mindful eating practices may decrease emotional eating behaviors in adults and adolescents. The purpose of this systematic review was to investigate the influence of parental mindful eating on emotional eating behaviors of their children and adolescents. A second purpose of this systematic review was to determine whether parental or child participation in a mindful eating intervention improves emotional eating among children. Methods This review (PROSPERO 168,265) was conducted utilizing EBSCOhost to search five databases. The search was limited to full-text, peer-reviewed studies in the English language from 2014–2020. Studies included must have evaluated parental mindful eating and child emotion- or stress-related eating. Studies were excluded if parents were not involved and mindful eating/feeding/or parenting and child emotional eating were not measured. Authors used standard Cochrane methodological procedures. The process identified seven studies. Results Among the four cross-sectional studies, parental mindful eating/feeding/parenting skills were either directly or indirectly related to decreased emotional eating in the child or adolescent. However, the effect was unclear among the experimental studies. Most of these studies were pilot feasibility studies. Measures of mindful and emotional eating differed across studies. Conclusions Parental mindful eating may improve emotional eating behaviors among children and adolescents. Randomized controlled trials are needed to evaluate parent mindful eating interventions on child and adolescent eating behaviors. Future trials need to use similar validated measures to ensure consistent quality data collection and allow for comparison of findings across studies. Funding Sources N/A.